Millions of Users of wireless Network User Devices travel locally, nationally or internationally with their Network User Devices (laptops, PDAs, etc.) but are unable to gain authorized access to the Internet via most of the currently deployed Network Resource Access Gateways (typically, Internet-connected, wireless access points/routers, such as those marketed by Cisco, Nortel, Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, etc.). More than 10 million Internet-connected wireless Access Gateways have already been deployed worldwide but they are frequently security-protected to prevent roaming Users from consuming Network Resources that they have not paid for. Commercial wireless ‘hotspots’, allowing paid-for access, have been springing up for several years in places such as coffee shops, airport lounges, hotels and railway stations. The majority of these hotspots require payment through a Billing Service Provider, whether directly (e.g. via subscription, prepaid vouchers or payment using a bank card) or indirectly (e.g. a hotel adds the charges to its guests' expense folio and subsequently pays all or a portion of the charges to the Billing Service Provider).
The main problem with existing forms of paid access is that the coverage provided by each Billing Service Provider remains extremely sparse (in terms of geographical coverage), notwithstanding the increasing number of roaming agreements in place between different Billing Service Providers. Many Users are reluctant to sign up and pay for services that they will only be able to use in a very limited number of hotspot locations. Hotspot operators therefore usually find it hard to generate reasonable revenue from the volume of Users, so tend to keep charges high, thereby further discouraging Users from signing up. The largest international Billing Service Providers that provide roaming access via wireless hotspots (e.g. Boingo, GoRemote, T-Mobile, Wayport, WeRoam, Orange, BTOpenzone or iPass) currently only offer access via up to 20,000 Access Gateways around the world, in spite of more than 10 million wireless Access Gateways currently being deployed.
What is needed is an effective means of turning many of those wireless Access Gateways into hotspots by providing an alternate means of authorization and settlement: one that allows Users to trade access to Network Resources via their own Access Gateway for access via others' when roaming. This would enable, for example, each individual who has installed a suitable Internet-connected wireless Access Gateway to trade usage of their underutilized Internet connection for access via others', anywhere in the world, without having to make any traditional form of payment.